Through Different Eyes
by Woodland's Cloud
Summary: Missing You in Rob's point of veiw. Lost interest, if wanted, i'll continue...
1. Chapter 1

**Meg Cabot owns 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU, not me. **

**Yes, I know... this is an extremely short chapter. Rob just doesn't have a lot to say during the first part of Missing You. Later chapters will be longer, I promise.**

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I couldn't believe it. Jess actually agreed to go to Afghanistan to help with the war. At first, I blamed Douglas… since he was the one that told her that she _had_ to go, but that wasn't really fair. It wasn't Douglas's fault. Jess left because she was a good person who wanted to help. Or at least that's what I made myself think.

When she left, I was depressed. I seriously couldn't live without her. Douglas was a huge help; I would go over to the store where he worked and just talk to him almost daily.

I watched the news too. There was a lot of progress in the war than there had been for a very long time. Little did everyone know that the progress was caused by none other than my girlfriend, Jess Mastriani. She found terrorists, and hostages, and probably a few more people that the FBI didn't tell the news about. It was nice to know that she was actually doing something to make the world a better place.

It was torture knowing that the reason why I was so miserable was because she left me here in Indiana without so much as an explanation.

Then she came home. She looked the same; just as beautiful as she did the last time I saw her. But she was… different. I guess that seeing people blowing up didn't do much for her. She didn't find people anymore. The news said that her powers just abandoned her.

I figured that she would be thrilled. I mean, she was eighteen now, and the powers that she hated so much were gone. No more FBI and no more broken bones. She wasn't happy though. If anything, she was broken. Not physically, no… she was emotionally broken.

I didn't see her very much before she left Indiana again. She wouldn't talk to me, or anyone else really. The papers said that she was accepted to this music collage, Juilliard, in New York. I guess that's where she went.

Douglas told me that she was living with her best friend, Ruth, the one that hated my guts. He said that she was doing okay, she was living off of the salary that the FBI paid her, and the money from the TV show company that did that show about her. Yeah—there was a TV show about "Lightning Girl". I watched it of course, but it didn't really help with my obsession.

She came back home a few times, and finally started to talk to me again. She was still different though, just… not the tough girl that I used to know. She wasn't as strong as she was before she left. And then there was that one day, the day that she saw me at the garage. That was the day that she left me, and didn't come back.

Jess walked up towards the garage, and saw Nancy—one of my customers—kiss me. Nancy kissed every single one of the mechanics in my garage… but Jess didn't know that. She thought that I kissed Nancy, and then didn't speak to me again.

She went back to New York, and lived peacefully for two whole years. That was when I found out that I wasn't an only child. I had a little sister.

Her name was Hannah. My sister I mean. She was living with the stepmother I never knew I had. When she wrote to me, saying that her mom's boyfriends were trying to hit on _her_ instead of her _mom_, I told her that she could come and stay with me. That was my first mistake.

At first, things went great with Hannah. It was like I had known her my whole life. We liked the same things, and got along really well. After a few days though, Hannah went missing.

The bed was still made, and it had looked as if she was never there. I panicked. There was no way that Jess would answer my calls, and even if she did I knew that she wouldn't listen. I went straight to Douglas.

When I told him about my sister missing he gave me the address to Jess's apartment in New York. I flew out there within the next few hours.

I noticed that when I got off of the plane, everyone was making plans for dinner. I also noticed that all of these plans took place at around nine o'clock at night. Jess should be making the same kind of plans right now, so it wouldn't be too terrible if I went to see her. She would probably be at her apartment with Ruth.

I could hear two male voices yelling, "Orion! Orion!" at some TV show. They were probably Ruth and Jess's boyfriends. Just thinking about the possibility of Jess dating was painful.

I knocked on the door. A very startled Jess opened it, probably expecting some delivery boy. She just stood there in shock for a few seconds, thinking about what to say to make her ex-boyfriend get the hell out of her apartment building. Too bad… because I was determined to get her help. I had to find my little sister before it was too late.

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	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU, Meg Cabot does.**

**This chapter is longer than the last one, since Rob had more to say.**

**Enjoy!**

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I waited a few seconds before breaking the silence. "Jess, is this a bad time?" I know, not the brightest of all things, but hey… I haven't seen her in _two years_.

She looked hurt. Maybe that wasn't the best thing to say. I could have said what I really wanted to say, which was, "Jess, I missed you so much. Will you please come home with me?" But I knew if I said something like that, I would probably get a slap across the face.

Even with that 'Jess, is this a bad time?' it looked like she was going to explode. Why did I come here again? Oh, right… to find my _sister_. Not to get back together with my ex-girlfriend. I couldn't let myself forget why I came.

She was thinking about that day at the garage. I could see it in her eyes. No wonder she looked so furious. I swear, if she had just stuck around for a little while longer she could have seen me tell her off. I hate it when Nancy comes into the shop. It just pisses me off that she was part of the reason that Jess left.

I hadn't even realized that she saw Nancy that day. Until of course, I found out that she was home and went to see her. The second that she saw me she told me to get the hell off of her property. I seriously thought that she was kidding. I mean, Jess and I had been going out—sort of—since she was sixteen.

When I realized that she wasn't joking, I got mad. How could she ever think that I would cheat on her? I had been waiting so long for her to turn eighteen, and then when she finally did, what does she do? She ditches me just because she saw something that she couldn't explain.

She got the acceptance letter to Juilliard, and then left, without even saying goodbye. I went into depression, and didn't see her again… until then.

She kept saying that I had it easy. I got to stay here in Indiana having _fun_ while she went to fight a war. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that it hadn't exactly been a walk in the park for me either. I had to stay in Indiana where I couldn't know if she was safe, and I couldn't do anything to protect her.

I couldn't help noticing though, that every time she was home I would see Ruth's car drive by the garage every few days—with a girl in the back seat trying to hide. At least I knew that she still wanted to see me. She just wanted to see me… without me seeing her. That was so not fair.

I forced myself not to call her when I knew that she was home. I still drove by her house at night though. Just not on the Indian. I knew that if I drove the Indian by her house every night, she would recognize it. So I took the truck instead. Sometimes I would just park across the street from her window and wait for her to turn off her light.

Since Jess never called—or even stopped by the garage to talk—I figured that she had moved on. That still didn't explain why she still drove by with Ruth and watched me, but I made myself think that she hated me. It didn't help though. I was still in love with her.

I knew that I wanted to be with Jess again, but I couldn't know what she wanted. Before she left for the war, she wanted what I did. But now… she could want anything. Who knows—maybe she was engaged to one of the dorks that was yelling at the TV.

Maybe she didn't even know what she wanted. I mean, two years is a long time to figure out what you want to do with your life, but if she was as broken as I thought she was… she probably didn't have any idea about what she wanted.

Jess looked tired too… like she wasn't sleeping well. I had to try to fix that. Wait—what was I saying? I came to find my sister, and find my sister only. If Jess wanted to get back together, then that was her choice… _not_ mine. God, why can't I just get her _out of my head_?

I heard one of the guys on the couch yell, "Ask him if he can break a fifty." Apparently they were expecting the pizza guy or something. The voice was oddly familiar though. Actually, it sounded a lot like Ruth's twin brother, Skip. It was. And the other kid on the couch was Michael, Jess older brother. So much for the boyfriend theory.

Jess ignored Skip. "Make sure he remembered the hot-pepper flakes," I heard Ruth call from another room. It seemed to me like the apartment was pretty full.

Jess was still ignoring everything. She just stood there, staring at me. It looked like she was trying not to remember me… like she was trying to forget that I existed. She was failing terribly.

I decided to speak up, "This is a bad time," I told her. "You've got company. I can come back later."

Skip interrupted just then, pushing himself in front of Jess. "Hey, can you break this?" he asked, shoving a fifty dollar bill out in front of him. He stopped when he realized that I wasn't holding food. "Hey, where's the 'za?" he prodded. Then he looked up at my face for the first time. "Hey, I know you," he sneered, changing his tone.

Thankfully, Ruth poked her head out of the room that she was in, most likely the kitchen. "Did you remember the hot-pepper…" she trailed off when she recognized me. "Oh," she said, in a different tone than her brother, "It's…it's…"

She just couldn't make herself say my name, so I said it for her. "Rob."

"Right," Ruth stuttered. "Rob. From back home." She shot Jess a panicked look. I guess she was worried about her. Actually, so was I. Usually Jess couldn't keep her mouth shut.

Ruth continued when no one said anything, "You remember Rob, Skip," she said, elbowing her twin. "He went to Ernie Pyle."

Skip glared at me before responding, "How could I forget?" It seemed like everyone, except Skip had matured. Ruth especially. If this had taken place a few years ago, she wouldn't have been saying anything.

"Right. Well. Do you um… do you want to come in?" Ruth asked; confused about how she should handle this for Jess. I couldn't blame her either. Jess was just standing there, still staring at me like I was crazy.

Just then Jess's brother decided to join the conversation. "What's the holdup?" he asked, making the small hallway even more crowded. "You guys need change or something?" Apparently, he hadn't seen me yet.

Skip looked over his shoulder and said, "It's not the pizza guy. It's Rob Wilkins."

"_Who?_" Mike asked, completely shocked. "_Here?_"

I was getting impatient. I just wanted to see if Jess would help me get my sister back, and then I would leave. There was no reason for all of this. "Look," I said, annoyed, "If this is a bad time, Jess, I can come back…"

Everyone turned to stare at Jess, including me. Ruth looked concerned, I guess that she was the only one who knew what Jess was actually feeling, since I certainly didn't… and I'm sure that her brother and Skip had no idea either. Skip looked mad, he probably still liked Jess, and had been trying to date her. Michael looked sympathetic, he was closer to knowing Jess's feelings than Skip was, but I was pretty positive that Ruth knew more.

"We'll just go out and let you two have some time alone together," Ruth suggested to the others, putting down some plates that she was holding.

"Go out?" Skip protested, "What about the pizza we ordered?" I laughed in my head, _Yeah, the pizza that I was supposed to bring?_

"You know what?" I said, snapping back into reality, and turning to go, "I'll come back later." That settled Skip down, all he wanted was for me to leave.

But when I was almost out of sight, I heard it, the voice that I had been longing to hear. "Wait," she said, almost in a whisper.

I paused, and then turned around. She was still staring at me. "Let me get my keys," she sighed, turning to go back into the apartment. "We can talk while we grab something to eat somewhere."

Finally! She turned and went back inside. I could hear Mike say something, but I couldn't make out the words. He was probably telling her to stay home. Yeah, right. Since when did Jess follow directions?

She was back out in a few minutes, Skip trailing behind. He stopped in the doorway, and was quiet until Jess made her way over to where I was standing.

"I thought we were having pizza," he called after her, causing Jess to turn back around and face him.

"Save me a slice," she muttered, sounding just as annoyed as I felt. Skip just wouldn't let her have her own life. He wanted to control Jess, so that she was right where he wanted her. What a bad boyfriend.

When Jess turned back around, she and I headed down the stairs. Unfortunately, her apartment building didn't have an elevator.

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	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU, or any of it's characters... Meg Cabot does.**

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For the first time, I realized how different New York was, compared to Indiana. In Indiana, you don't usually walk anywhere. In NYC, you walk _everywhere._ If you even have a

car—most people don't—you don't really use it unless you're going out of the city. I guess that that's because the traffic in New York is horrible. Taxis and delivery trucks block the streets, keeping traffic pretty much at zero miles per hour. I'm not even kidding.

From what I can tell though, there's no place that a car can take you that a subway can't. Also—from my experience (the airport to Jess's apartment)—everything that you hear about a subway being dangerous… not true. If anything, the subway is the best place to go if you're a tourist. Just stay alert. If you ask a New Yorker for directions, they pretty much escort you to where ever you're going.

It was weird, walking down the sunny, tree-lined streets of New York City with Jess. It was something that I had never pictured in a million years. Not even once.

I decided to keep quiet. If I opened my big mouth now, I would regret it later. Jess didn't say anything either, so I just assumed that she was okay with it. The silence I mean. We just walked down the busy sidewalk in complete silence.

The silence lasted too long. I was about to say something when Jess chimed in for me, "There's a decent Mexican place around the corner."

God, she just had to say something that I couldn't think of a response to didn't she? I just nodded, and let her lead the way. I knew that this was going to be hard for me… but I didn't think that it would be too hard for her. Man was I wrong.

We finally got to the restaurant that Jess had mentioned, the Blue Moon. We walked inside, and Jess led us to a small table by the window. That was probably where she and Ruth sat when they came here. Soon, a waitress came by who was apparently well acquainted with Jess.

"Hey, Jess" she smiled, as we took our seats. "The usual?"

"Yes please," Jess smiled back halfheartedly. It was painful knowing that she would rather be back at her apartment with _Skip_ of all people.

The waitress, who's name was Ann, looked at me expectantly. "Just a beer," I told her, not thinking straight. When Ann listed a bunch of brands, I just chose some random one, to get her away form the table so that Jess and I could talk.

I noticed that Jess and I were the only ones in the restaurant, except for the staff. Jess just stared blankly out the window, watching people walk by.

I was nervous. There, I admitted it. I kept rearranging my silverware, fork, knife, spoon, then knife, spoon, fork, and so on. I was almost at the point that I was going to shred up the pathetic paper napkin.

I took in my surroundings, there were sombreros on the walls, and chili-pepper lights around the bar. Actually, I think that I had looked at everything except for the person sitting in front of me… Jess.

Thankfully, Jess took the liberty of breaking the silence. "So, how's your mom?" she asked… trying to start a conversation. I didn't think that she cared about how my mother was doing though.

"My mom?" I said, making sure that I actually heard her correctly. "She's fine. Fine."

Jess nodded, "Good," she replied, relieved. I decided that I probably shouldn't tell her that my mom had sold me the house and barn, so that she could move to Florida with Gary. I bought the house from her, and then bought my uncle's garage too. Jess didn't need to know all of that though. "My dad says she quit a while back."

Okay, maybe I should at least tell her about my mom's move. She had a right to know. "Yeah, well, what happened was, she moved to Florida." Hey, she didn't need to know _all_ the details—unless of course she asked. Which she did.

"She did?" she asked in disbelief. "Florida?" I laughed mentally. Was it really that hard to believe that my mom had moved to the sunny state of Florida?

"Yeah, um, with that guy. Her boyfriend. Gary. Did you meet Gary?" Stupid question. Stupid, stupid question. Of course she met Gary. He was over at my house on Thanksgiving the year before Jess left. The night that she told me that she loved me.

When she was quiet, I continued, "Her sister lives there, my aunt. And things were tight—you know, back home. Gary got a better job down there and asked her to come with him. So she said she'd try it out for a while. And she liked it so much, she ended up staying."

She just said, "Oh." Well, I couldn't really blame her… I mean, I just told her everything about my mom's life. "Well, I'm happy for her, I guess. For you both. That things are going so well." She still didn't know that I didn't live with my mother any more.

"Thanks," I nodded—still not telling her all of the details. The waitress came over to our table with our drinks and some chips. Saying that I was surprised when she set down a strawberry margarita—with an umbrella in it—in front of Jess would be an understatement.

Jess saw my confused look, and answered half of my questioning look. "It's virgin."

"Oh," I said, still confused. "It has an umbrella in it."

She shrugged, and stuck the little umbrella in the pocket of her jeans, "Yeah? So what?"

I laughed silently to myself, she took these things so personally. "I just never would have pegged you for an umbrella-drink kind of girl."

She said, "Yeah," again, and then continued, "Well, I'm full of surprises."

I didn't ridicule her drink choices again after that. When Ann came back to take our order Jess and I both told her that we wern't't ready to order yet. The waitress walked away, leaving Jess and I alone once again.

I decided that I would break the silence this time—save Jess some self control. "And your folks?" I asked, "How are they doing?" I already knew the answer of course. Doug and I had become pretty close after Jess left.

She stared at me for a second before answering, "They're fine." Well, at least she was staying in touch with her family enough to know that there hadn't been any problems.

"Yeah," I agreed, "I see Doug from time to time." Crap! I was not supposed to say that. Now she would know that I had been talking to Douglas about her behind her back. "He told me Mike was spending the summer with you… Ruth's brother too, I see. Or is he just visiting?" Damn it! Why did I have to keep talking? Surely she knew by now that I had been asking about her.

"No, he's with us until September," Jess informed me. "They're both crashing—he and Mike—while they work internships in the city. So did your mom sell the farm? I mean, when she moved to Florida?" There it was… the question that I really didn't want to answer.

I tried to think of a way to change the subject, but nothing came to mind fast enough. I had to tell her that I owned the farm now. "No," I started, shaking my head slowly. "We've still got the farm. Or, should I say, I've got it. I bought it—and the house—from my mom."

Jess was shocked. After the information settled into her mind though, she continued, "And are you still working at your uncle's garage?" Once again, a question that I really didn't want to answer.

I squeezed the little slice of lime that came with my beer into the little opening at the top of the bottle before answering, "Yeah," and then gave her the other information that she would eventually have to find out. "Only it's not his garage anymore. He retired. So he sold it."

She took this information better than the house—but she still didn't know that I was the one who bought the garage. "Oh," she sighed, and then continued, "Well, that must be weird. I mean, working for somebody else after working for your uncle for so long."

"Not really," I chuckled, taking a drink of beer, "Because he sold it to me."

This time she was really surprised. It took longer for this to penetrate her mind than anything else had. "You bought your uncle's garage?" she asked. I simply nodded—due to a lack of words.

Jess just sat there quietly, not able to say anything. Then I remembered her scholarship to Juilliard, and decided that that was a good question to ask. How did she like school?

"What about you?" I asked, needing to know more about her new life. "How are you liking school out here?"

Poor Jess still wasn't completely ready to talk again, so she just muttered, "It's okay," and then went back to staring at me.

I decided that since she already knew that I had asked Douglas about her, I could continue to use the information that he gave me. "Doug says that you're doing really well," I said, rearranging my silverware again. I wasn't used to having my hands still. They were always moving when I was at the shop. "In school, I mean. First chair in orchestra, or something?"

"Yeah," she sighed, sounding bored. "But I'm taking a break for the summer."

That's right, Doug had said something about a job with Ruth. "Right," I answered, "Doug says you and Ruth are doing some kind of summer arts program for needy kids?"

I started to realize then that she was probably going to get mad at Douglas for telling me so much about her. I would have to remember to ask her not to put the blame on him.

"Yeah," she nodded, "It's pretty cool. I like it a lot. Better than playing in orchestra, actually. The kids are fun."

"You always did like kids," I said, remembering the one summer when she was a counselor at Camp Wawasee. The kids there loved her, especially Shane, the one that she saved. "You were always great with them, too."

Jess didn't say anything, and neither did I. I just sat and thought about the day that she called me from camp. She said that she needed me to drive out there, to pick her up. Since it was three hours away, I told her that I couldn't… at first. Then she told me that it was okay that I didn't want to pick her up myself, that there were other _guys_ who could take her where she needed to go.

That's where I drew the line. I went and picked her up from that camp right away. She took me to the house of some little girl, whose mom had kidnapped her. The guy that the mom was dating was abusive, and the girl needed help to get out of there—fast.

We came up with a scheme… Jess and I would pose as high school students, and ask the mom some random questions. Jess would pretend to forget something, and then go get the kid from the back yard.

Our plan worked perfectly until the abusive boyfriend caught Jess. She kicked him in the face—breaking his nose—and then got out of there as fast as she could. We returned the girl to her father, and then I took Jess back to the camp. It was great. Jess had saved another helpless child, with me by her side. Why did she have to leave?

"That's kind of why I'm here actually," I told her, breaking out of my memories.

Jess peered at me over the rim of her martini glass, "What? Because of… kids?"

"Yeah, basically," I clarified, watching her carefully.

She took a huge drink of her martini, and got a brain freeze. And then, she choked a little. "Whoa," I warned, concerned, "Slow down there slugger."

Jess winced, and said, "Sorry." She probably gave herself a headache, or something.

I couldn't read the expression on her face… most likely because of the ice-cream headache that she had just given herself. It looked like she was afraid of something, but I couldn't imagine what there was to be afraid of.

I leaned forward a little in my chair once her headache seemed to have passed. I didn't want anyone overhearing the rest of our conversation. "The thing is," I started, "I know that things have been…" how do I put this? "Well, weird between us. You and me, I mean. The past two years or so."

Yeah, the past two years of my life that have been hell.

"But we're still friends, right?" I had to know what kind of terms we were on before I could ask this favor of her. There was no way that I would ever ask her for this if she hated my guts. Kind of like her mother. "I mean… maybe we aren't—whatever we were—anymore."

I watched her face closely, trying to detect any kind of emotion in her features. There was none. There was no emotion what so ever in her face… at all.

"But we'll always be friends, won't we?" I asked, trying to pull an answer out of her mouth. "I mean, after everything we went through together." From fighting off rapists, to avoiding the FBI, and even sitting through detention. "Detention at Ernie Pyle High. That's gotta bind people for life, right?" I needed to see her smile, just once.

And my prayers were answered. She smiled. It wasn't too terribly noticeable, but it was a smile all the same. "Yeah, I guess so," she agreed.

"Good," I sighed, totally relieved. I could at least _ask_ her to help me find Hannah. "Good. Okay. So, we're still friends." Even if I wanted to be _so much more than just her friend_.

"Still friends," Jess echoed, taking another sip of her umbrella drink.

"Then it'd be okay if I asked you," I began, nervous as to how she'd react, "I mean, as a friend—" I took another deep breath before I continued, "So, here's the thing…" Jess took a deeper breath than I had, and held it.

I didn't want her to pass out due to a lack of oxygen, so I cut to the chase.

"Jess. I need you to find my sister."

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